86 BIEDS IN LONDON 



other with a small hand-hatchet, which flew ofi 

 the handle at every stroke. Seeing that I was 

 observing their antics, one shouted to the other, 

 6 Say, Bill, got a penny ? ' ' No, don't I wish I 

 had ! ' shouted the other. 



' Little beggars/ thought I, ' do you really 

 imagine you are going to get a penny out of 

 me ? * So much amused was I at their trans- 

 parent device that I deliberately winked an eye 

 not at the urchins, but for the benefit of a 

 carelessly dressed, idle-looking young woman 

 who happened to be standing near just then, 

 regarding us with an expression of slight interest, 

 a slight smile on her rosy lips, the sunshine 

 resting on her beautiful sun-browned face, and 

 tawny bronzed hair. I must explain that I had 

 met her before, often and often, in London and 

 other towns, and in the country, and by the sea, 

 and on distant seas, and in many uninhabited 

 places, so that we were old friends and quite 

 familiar. 



Presently an exceedingly wasted, miserable- 

 looking, decrepid old woman came by, bent almost 

 double under a ragged shawl full of sticks and 

 brushwood which she had gathered where the 

 men were now engaged in lopping off the branches 



